Video: Need to Know, April 20, 2012: Crossing the line | Need to Know | PBS
Fifteen years ago on May 20, Esequiel Hernandez, a young goat herder tending to his family’s livestock, was shot and killed by a platoon of U.S. Marines on a drug interdiction covert operation along the Redford, Texas border with Mexico. When the fatal incident happened in 1997, the shooting of the 18 year-old US citizen exposed the cruel truth about the dangers of placing “boots on the ground,” what has amounted to a knee-jerk policy priority for several decades from various US presidents on both sides of the political aisle. With no exception, in his 2012 State of the Union address President Obama’s reference to border politics included the perennial phrase of increasing “boots on the ground” as allusion to his tough talk on border security. With militarization of communities, however, comes loss of rights, diminished constitutional protections, and even death. With 21,370 Border Patrol agents on the ground, and over 21,000 CBP agents stationed at ports-of-entry, incidents involving excessive use of force have increased over the past several years. These occur with little scrutiny, investigation, oversight, and transparency measures in place to hold the juggernaut agency accountable for incidents alleging mistreatment or abusive conduct.
The uniqueness about Esequiel’s case was not that he was killed during a border operation, since historically cases involving excessive use of force by US border agents resulting in death are common in border communities. But in fact, the newness was that the perpetrators were US Marines involved in covert operations deployed on domestic soil. In 1997, there were a combined 11,966 Border Patrol and CBP agents in total, a number that has nearly quadrupled today combining both Border Patrol and CBP agents. Since Esequiel’s murder, the budget for the Border Patrol personnel and resources has ballooned to a proposed $12 billion for 2013, up from just over $900 million in 1997. Though the death of Esequiel promptly halted the deployment of US troops to border communities, these returned with greater fanfare in 2006 justified by the War on Terror, a place-holder to what would become the 21,000-plus Border Patrol force.
In recent years, greater attention has been given to incidents involving Border Patrol brutality. In 2010, for instance, Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, a father of 5 US citizen children and a 27-year resident of the City of San Diego was left brain dead after a severe tazing and beating. According to witnesses, at least 20 different uniformed agents participated in the attack. Anastasio died three days later. A week after Anastasio was beaten, a Border Patrol agent in El Paso shot and killed 15-year old Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca as he returned to Mexico after attempting to cross into the United States. To date, investigations on both incidents remain in a state of limbo with the Department of Justice.
Other unresolved incidents include: February 28, 2011 (Alejandro Perez-Martinez, was shot to death by Border Patrol agents in Whatcom County, Washington); March 21, 2011 (Carlos La Madrid, a US citizen, was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona); and June 20, 2011 (José Alfredo Yañez, shot in the face by a Border Patrol agent while still in Mexico, died at the scene).
Border Patrol brutality, of the kind that is perpetrated by misguided enforcement policies calculated to push would-be migrants into treacherous desert and mountainous terrain, and by border agents protected by a culture of impunity, continues to be the law of the land. The scathing report (www.cultureofcruelty.org) by the humanitarian group No More Deaths makes a compelling argument that abuses committed by Border Patrol agents are common practice, systemic, and part of the institutionalized culture that drives border enforcement priorities.
In spite of this, border communities are uniting in the northern and the southern border states to challenge the mainstream narrative about the border and offer a perspective grounded on the basic premise that all people deserve to be treated with dignity. For more information about how to become involved, please visit: http://soboco.org/.
